Meet Zuyou Liu | Screenwriter & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zuyou Liu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zuyou, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
Every industry has a lot of stories and content that outsiders don’t know, and as a screenwriter in the film and television industry, one of the things that outsiders don’t know is just how long it takes to write a script for a movie or TV show. It is likely that many people are also wordsmiths who write for a living as well. For example, if a journalist writes a story, it may not take more than 3 days from interview to distribution. But for a screenplay, there may be no upper limit to the time it takes to complete it – it can be 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years. The writer’s study of every word, the rehearsal of every line, the copying of every scene is the driving force to make that script better, and a concrete symbol in the time scale. A script is never finished; a script can always be revised, becoming more perfect over time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a person who makes friends with words, I love the feeling of words flowing like a river under my pen, some people can write and some people have to write, I consider myself the latter. I have been educated since I was a child by my grandparents, mom, dad and aunts and uncles in my family, all of them are teachers who teach language, maybe this is the reason why I embarked on the path of writing. I clearly remember that every time I went out for a trip, they would ask me to come home and write a travelogue to record my feelings and thoughts at the moment, and they would also ask me to write essays and then read them aloud to everyone during the week. Thanks to their guidance. My short screenplays, Begonia, Fame on Fire, Never Tear Us Apart, etc. are now winning awards at major international film festivals, and that’s where I think the world is recognizing my writing, and that’s where I’m proud of my writing. Of course, no one is born writing, let alone writing a movie script. The biggest difficulty I encountered was the conversion of language system. In the past ten years or so, I was able to write like a fish out of water in the Chinese language system and was able to write painfully, but when I came to the United States and started to write in English, I started to become less confident. On the one hand, it was the lack of vocabulary that prevented me from writing accurately about the things I wanted to express, and on the other hand, it was the difference in thinking. The way of thinking in Chinese and English are different, and in some cases, even opposite, like asking me to pull a pen and write with my foot, so I had to force myself to leave behind my inherent Chinese thinking in order to write. Writing is writing after all, whether it’s in Chinese or English, the essence of writing is the same, it’s about telling a story to someone else, so why can’t I tell it well in English? Why can’t I tell a story well in English? So I went to study English scripts and movie lines, which is not a simple process of learning English. For me, it is like suddenly immigrating to another country and integrating into the local life, which is a matter of cultural transformation. For example, when a Chinese speaker meets a friend on the road, he or she will ask: Have you eaten? This is a greeting of concern, but an English speaker might say “wassup” when he meets someone on the road. You can’t learn these details, you just have to observe and record them.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I must say, one week is not enough time haha. But in a week’s time, the places I would definitely take my friends to would be Griffith Observatory, Warner Brothers at Burbank, Korean Town, Rowland Heights and Malibu Beach, and if there’s enough time, add Yosemite National Parks. These are my favorite places over the years and I never get tired of them no matter how many times I visit them.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Yeah, of course, I have so many supportive family and friends in my life, and every one of them deserves to be shoutout to, thanks to them. Today, I would like to take this opportunity and platform to proudly shoutout to my girlfriend, Susie Cui, who supports my every dream, encourages my every attempt, and honors my every success. In the seven years I’ve been with her, she has always reassured me: don’t put too much pressure on yourself, let’s take it one step at a time. Now I look back, next to each of my footprints, there are her footprints. It is she who supported me and pushed me forward to this day. SHOUTOUT TO SUSIE CUI!

Website: https://www.mydood.online/

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Youtube: DOOD_Production

Image Credits
Trey Branch Xinshu Cui